Data Scientist : The Hottest Job of the 21st Century

What does a Data Scientist Do?

Such a simple question from the outlook but complex when actually think about it. Right? What does a data scientist do? Obviously, works with data but at what levels of complexity? What do the job roles include? Where does one fit in an organization? What value does a data scientist bring to the business? And finally, how is the growth? Such a simple question like what does a data scientist do cannot answer all these underlying questions. So, in this article, we’ve tried to answer all the questions you can possibly think of. Read on.

What is the role of a data scientist?

A data scientist’s role in a business is similar to that of chilly flakes in pizza. You may think you don’t want it but when you add it, the pizza just tastes better. A data scientist brings in skill sets and knowledge from diverse backgrounds such as math, statistics, modeling, analytics, communication and business acumen. With the skills, he looks for insights from huge chunks of data and presents them to the management with solutions to tackle the challenges visible to him and the inputs and strategies for the business to prepare for the future.

A data scientists extract data from various resources, uses analytics tools to analyze the data, uncovers insights, visualizes them for interpretation and presents it to the management to strategize. The value that a data scientist brings into an organization is unparalleled. While other departments work on developing and delivering products and services, sales, customer care and more, a data scientist acts as the bridge amongst all of them and sees if the product or service that is delivered reaches the customer and if the customers are looking for something else, their behaviour, expectations, lag in any of the departments, any challenges or hurdles one can foresee and more.

A business, without a data scientist, would stay back in the race of the brands in the market only to wake up to realize that it’s too late. Investing in data science is not just beneficial for a business in the longer run but rewarding for immediate results, too.

The demand for data scientists

Today, around 6 billion devices are connected globally and these connected devices generate millions of terabytes of data every day. For a data scientist, this is a treasure chest of insights and vital data that can rewrite the fate of the business or brand he or she is working for. Our online behavior on social media, e-commerce websites and more are touchpoints of data and these are used by data scientists to provide us with a better shopping experience, to understand us better and deliver quality service. The fascinating aspect is that the volume of data generated is exactly the reason why data scientists are in huge demand today.

India requires over 200,000 data scientists by 2018 and the pay that data scientists get is huge when compared to engineers and chartered accountants. With the right skillsets and experience, the pay gets higher. So, if you’re someone looking to become a data scientist, stop thinking. The time is right and the career is rewarding and lucrative. Just get started and switch to analytics and you’ll be happy you did.

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